7.13.2008

Former FDIC official Ann Graham said it was not unprecedented for the FDIC to start running a bank after it fails. "It happens when they need to move more swiftly with the closing than they can move with a potential sale," said Graham, a law professor at Texas Tech University.

"They don't have to sell the institution over the weekend," she said. "They have the time to shop around."

Graham said the FDIC has the authority to operate an institution for two years but expected the agency would dispose of it much sooner than that.

Comment: This is complete speculation on my part, but I would think that Wells Fargo would be a good candidate to pick up the pieces and acquire the reconstituted IndyMac with their 33 branches.